Welcome to the Neighbourhood
Disclaimer: Don't own Power Rangers. Or anything familiar.
A.N.: Kinda inspired by a Chinese drama children-ish show I watched the other day. The story is totally AU and some characters might be a little OOC...
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"Papa, why do we have to come here?" asked 18 year old Sydney Drew. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. Here? For the holidays? Oh you got to be kidding me. It was a block of flats. A small neighbourhood comprised of houses that weren't one storey or two stories, but flats. Level stacked on level. Living with other people! Well not really living with other people, but if you think about it, it seemed as if you were sharing a huge home with a few dozen families. "Papa... Why here? Why couldn't we go the Paris or Australia?" Syd whined. Her father and her mother didn't reply, and simply continued to walk on. They were staying with their Aunt for the holidays. "Why couldn't we stay at home then?"
Her father sighed, giving the inclination that he had explained many times already. "It's under renovation, Syd. Stop being so bratty. When the renovations are done, we can move back home." He had been saying that for more than a dozen times, but Syd sensed that it wasn't the truth. There was something in his eyes. Something sad. Something... Something that told her that he was lying. Or that's what she thought.
"Couldn't we just room in a hotel or something? Or we could just go to another country and live there until the renovations are done... Instead of living with Aunt! The houses are so small... How do you expect me to live there?" snorted Syd. There were only so few rooms in her Aunt's house. Would that mean she wouldn't have her own room? Or even her own closet? The horror. She trailed behind her parents. Dreading the upcoming days, weeks or even months...
"Sydney Drew, just do as you're told!" replied her mother, snapping at Syd. Shocked, the blonde started mumbling to herself. Her mother never snapped at her before. Never told her off before. Never. "Stop whining!"
Syd lagged behind. She passed by two teenagers and a small boy. Both teens looked at least 17. The girl had short brown hair. She had on a yellow shirt with a black jacket pulled over and jeans. The other teen had brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. He had this kiddish air around him, unlike the girl who had more of a 'don't mess with me' kind of feeling. He was wearing a green shirt with the picture of a monkey on it and jeans as well. And curiously, he had a pair of gloves on his hands, even though it wasn't even cold. The smaller kid looked as if he was 10. He had curly red hair and many freckles. The small boy was wearing a white shirt with a jacket, made of the same material as jeans, and a knee length pants. They didn't look alike, but seemed as if they were siblings.
"And the people here are so..." Syd muttered under her breath, not managing to come up with a word to describe the three people she passed by. It wasn't as if there was anything wrong with them, she just needed more reasons to hate living here more. "I can't wait to get back home where I don't have to meet with all these kind of people," she said, a little louder.
The girl glared at her, and if looks could kill- Syd would be dead. She looked at Syd as if Syd was the lowest of the low, the worse being ever to step on the planet, or the galaxy, in the whole New Tech City. "Watch what you say Pinky," threatened the girl, snarling. Intentionally, she stepped on Syd's branded just bought customnised boot and stomped off.
"Sorry," apologised the older boy, he indeed looked sorry and apologetic. He should. "But I think you really shouldn't make Z angry. She can be really scary sometimes." The younger boy, the red head, nodded, agreeing with the older boy. "Sorry," he repeated, then hurried off, before the girl noticed that the other two boys were gone.
Who cares about what that girl, Z was it her name, thinks. Syd was richer. Syd was better. Syd was prettier. Why should she take orders from some random girl? Why should Syd put up with her? Should that Z girl be the one to put up with Syd? Snorting, Syd walked off, ignoring the boys. "I can't wait to get out of here," she said, loudly. Her parents were already far in front of her. But Syd knew the way to her Aunt's house.
The girl came over, hearing Syd. Perfect. "Who do you think you are Missy? You got a problem?" she asked, angrily. Her friend, the teenager, looked as scared as a... well... as a mouse when it knows that a cat has conered it. "If you hate it here so much, why don't you go away? It's not like we want you here or anything." Syd looked at her coolly.
"Oh what I hate about this filthy, disgusting place?" Syd paused, pretending to think. The gloved teen was shaking his head wildly and waving his hands, motioning for Syd to stop. She ignored him. Scoffing, Syd continued, "Hmm... Oh I don't know. Maybe it's because there's people like you and him in it. This place is not even fit for pigs to live." The girl looked livid.
"Look Pinky, insult me all you want. But don't you dare drag Bridge and Sam into this. Apparently you didn't realise that it's I'm the one you have a problem with. Or are you too thick to notice that?" retored the furious girl. She looked as if she wanted to beat Syd to a pulp. "Now why not you go back to your perfect pretty in Pink world and leave us alone?" The gloved teen smacked his head, wincing. The smaller boy was whispering to the girl to stop quarrelling and let it go. "Sam, you and Bridge just go back first ok?" she told the kid. He shook his head, urging the girl to stop quarrelling.
"Aww... Why don't you just obey your friend and just go? He knows I'm right. Like your friend over there- What's he wearing? Gloves? Now? If that's not weird I don't know what is." The girl snapped. She lunged at Syd, intent of bruising every part of Syd.
"Z! Z! Z!" cried the younger boy, trying to pull the fighting teenagers apart. The girl apparently had a wide knowlege of martial arts. Syd on the other hand knew martial arts too. She knew fencing, she was the World Fencing Champion in the world. "Bridge!" he called out to the gloved teen, who looked as if he was in enormous pain. "Bridge! Help!" he cried, desperatedly. "Z! STOP!" Feeling desperate, the younger boy did the only thing he knew what to do in this situation. He raised his hand and the girl disappeared. Then she re-appeared a few metres away from Syd. "Stop!" he yelled, one more time, just to make sure he got it in the girl's head.
The teen looked downright sorry and ashamed. She went over to the gloved teen, who had curled himself into a ball and had squeezed his eyes shut. "Bridge? You OK?" she asked, surprisingly gently. "OK, untense. Untense..." she said. Syd glared at all three of them and walked off, dusting off any dust she had gotten on her shirt. What's wrong with that boy? "Bridge, look at me. Look, everything's OK. No one's angry now..." she whispered to the shaking teen. Slowly he untensed and stopped shaking. Syd watched, hiding behind a pillar, curious, wondering what was happening. "You OK now?" He nodded, and whispered something in the girl's ear. "We know you're there Pinky," she said, loudly. Syd gasped and ran off, after her parents.
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"At least I got my own room," said Syd, consoling herself. She was sitting on a- her bed in her Aunt's house. "At least I got my own room..." Her parents had relented and let her claim the largest room. Her Aunt pampered her and also let her have that room. Something about just now bugged her. Something about that kid with gloves bugged her. Why did he (what's the right word?) go so tense? And what's with the gloves? Syd had a weird feeling about him. And that Sam kid, how had he managed to make the girl disappear off her and appear away from her? Did he have powers like her? "Fist of Iron," she whispered, clutching a small iron bar. Her fist shone light pink, the light was comforting and warm, and then faded, revealing her now iron fist. Was that small kid the same as her? Was he a freak, as the kids last time put crudely, like her? Were they all?
Syd closed her eyes, her head hurting with so many confusing thoughts, and lay down on her bed. She was psychically and mentally exhuasted. Somehow the fight with that teen had drained her- a lot. Thinking of comebacks and trying not to get her eyes scratched out. That was kind of tiring in a way. Syd drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
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"Remember that girl yesterday?" asked Z. Bridge nodded. Her friends, Jack and Sky, promted her to go on. "She was a total bi-" Bridge waved his hand, doing a cutting motion across his throat. Z turned around and saw Sam. No bad words that Sam would probably learn soon around him. He would learn them. Eventually... "Hi Sam." Her brother, adopted, walked towards them, burried in his newspaper. "Homework?" Sam gave his sister a thumbs up. "Need help?" He shook his head.
"Woah... Check this out!" Sam said excitedly. He placed the newspaper on the ground, motioning for the others to see what he had discovered. "Look at this!" He pointed to an article. Bridge balanced his plate of toast on his knee and bent down.
"Local Pedigree Breeder Bankrupt through Shares," said Bridge, reading the title of the news article out loud. "Jonathan Drew.. blah blah blah... Dabbled in shares... blah.. blah.. blah... Bankrupt. Blah blah... Lost everything?" He recited as he skimmed through the article. "Drew... That sounds familiar?"
"Duh," Z said, rolling her eyes. "He's the father of that who- I mean that girl we met yesterday." Something clicked. "So that Sydney person is downright poor. And she acts like she's the queen of everything? Guess we know her little secret now..." Z grinned evily. "That means she is doesn't even have a single cent to her name. Hah! She's even poorer than us!"
Jack groaned. "Z give it a rest..." He was sparring with Sky. Both ending up quite bruised. Jack because Sky kept using his genetic power, forcefield creation, so he kept crashing into them. And Sky because Jack was also using his genetic power. He was standing in front of trees and when Sky was about to attack him, Jack would simply phase through the ground and let Sky smack into the tree. He yelped as Sky charged after him, and phased through the ground again, before re-surfacing a few seconds and metres later.
"How do you know what her name is anyway?" asked Sam, curious and suspicious.
Z replied, "She's an Olympian, singer and god knows what. Basically she's an all-rounder in everything except politeness..."
Just then, Syd came around. strutting as if she owned the place. "Speak of the devil," muttered Z.
"Sam! FREEZE!" cried Bridge. He and Sam had started to play ball. Bridge had thrown the ball a little too hard, and it flew... and flew... and flew... Sam, wanting to catch it, just ran after it. He didn't see Syd behind him. And crashed. "Ouch..." Sam and Syd were lying sprawled on the ground. Bridge ran over to help Sam up and to again apologise to Syd. "You alright?" he asked, to both, just as the rest of the group gathered around the two to see the 'damage'.
"Get off me!" shouted Syd, pushing Sam away. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" Why was these bad things always happening to her? Why? Oh, it was the same three kids again. This time with another two teens. Were they trying to make her stay here a living hell? Or did they just like pestering people? "You guys again..." said Syd, annoyed.
Glarring daggers at Syd, Z helped her little brother up. "Why don't you watch you are saying?" retorted Z.
Bridge, ever the peace maker, sensed another fight. "Don't we have to get back home now? Right your mum said that right?" he stammered out, partially afraid to get in the middle of the two girls' fight. He looked at the others frantically.
"Yeah, Z mum said it's time to go now," said Sam, backing up Bridge. Although it was obvious that Z wouldn't really care.
"Your mum?" asked Syd, in disbelief. "What about your own parents? Are you living with them or something? What did your parents abandon you?" She didn't mean it. In her heart, she didn't mean it. But she needed to convince herself that this boy, like the rest of the group, was bad news. Something about him, was so... innocent. She wanted to convince herself otherwise.
"Hey, hey, hey, that's out of line," replied Jack, stepping up to the 'batting plate'.
"They... died," said Bridge, so quietly that Syd almost couldn't hear him. "In a fire..."
There was something about the way he said it. So child-like... Something in his voice that made Syd immediately regret making her scathing remark. Why did she even say such an awful thing? Why was she being so mean to people who might be good friends? "I'm sorry," said Syd.
"No you're not," answered Bridge, mechanically. "You're not," he repeated, his voice was cold and hard, starring solidly at the ant crawling along the side walk carring a leaf.
"What makes you think you own this place? Just because you're what? A superstar? A Olympian? Well you're nothing if you don't even know how to be nice to someone who is actually nice to you in the first place! I'm even surprised if you can even afford to live here! We know everything! We know that your family is down right poor!" lashed out Z. No one messes with her friends. No one messes with them.
"What are you talking about? I'm richer than all of you people combined. Heck- I don't even know what the heck I'm doing here," replied Syd, coolly and calmly. This was the new arguement that girl was setting? Yeah right... She poor? Never in a million centuries...
Z smirked. "Stop acting, we all know." She took the newspaper and flipped to the selected page, thrusting it into Syd's hands. "Read and find out, we all know your dirty little secret..."
Syd scanned the article. It took forever for her to digest the information. Bankrupt? Her? It can't be. But... The newspaper. And the article... But daddy didn't tell her... Papa and mama lied to her? They never lied. They wouldn't. The-
"Got it?" asked Z. "Good..." She smiled sweetly and snatched the paper back. Her smile got wider as she saw Sydney falter. And turn around to run away. "Served her right," she said.
Bridge sensing something amiss, yanked off his glove and read Syd's aura. "Guys, she didn't know. Her parents didn't tell her. She didn't know," he repeated.
"So what? Soon she would have to know. We're just speeding up that process," defended Z. "Besides she deserved it. What she said to you. And how she treated Sam." Bridge opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and looked down on the ground again.
Was Z right? Did that girl- Sydney, deserve it? Why wouldn't her parents tell her in the first place? Was it to spare her from the truth? That would mean that they were the first ones to tell her. That would mean... She was kept completely in the dark. Until they told her. She didn't deserve everything. No matter whatever Sydney did say to him. It wasn't fair that it was them who told her. Especially Z. But-
"You're right Bridge..." sighed Z. Bridge looked up, surprised, that Z had known what he was thinking of. "I'd better go- apologise..." Her eyes glowed yellow as she used her own genetic power, being able to duplicate herself. She nodded to her duplicate and she sent off to find Syd. "What about the rest of you?" asked the real Z. The others nodded yes. Bridge sticking with the real Z. Sam with Jack.
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Something about being near a waterbody calmed Syd down. It could be because of the rhymthemic sound of the water flowing. Or it could be because of the peaceful feeling she got whenever she was near a river or a lake. Thankfully there was a small river near the houses. Actually Syd had no idea there was a river nearby. It was just that... Something had drawn her there. Some connection. It was like a picture in a book. Green pastures and a small flowing lake. A few rocks along the banks and a bunch of wild flowers too. Syd sat on one of the rocks, watching the flowing water, her mind clear as a sheet. The world around her was silent except for the sound of water. Peaceful. Calm. Syd wished that she could stay like that forever. She would rather stay here than face the truth.
Her parents had lied to her. About the bankruptcy. Why would they lie to her? Syd stared unblinkingly at the water. It numbed her mind. Making her thoughts seem slower, making the world seem less complicated.
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Bridge took off his glove again, scanning for Syd. His brown eyes concentrated in reading the results. "I can't find her," he announced, blankly. Did he want to find her? Yes he did. It was the right thing. It was the correct thing. Syd is a good person deep down that mask she put on. She is. He tried again, trying to ignore that irritating doubtful side of him. She did bring up dad and mum. And she was mean to Sam and Z. But... Face the facts, he didn't really want to find her. Heck, he didn't even care if she would go away forever. She was mean. She didn't deserve to be found.
"Can you try again?" prompted Z.
"I don't want to find her," stated Bridge bluntly. "No. She's mean to you and Sam. She doesn't deserve to be found." Bridge was like that sometimes. Truthful, to the point. But he hardly ever voiced his own personal emotions, unless asked, too plagued by everyone else's around him.
"Bridge... It's about your mum and dad right? About what she said..." guessed Z, knowing she was right. True enough, Bridge nodded slowly, not sure if he should continue. Z sighed. "Bridgey..." She enveloped him in a warm hug. "It's ok alright... You don't have to find her if you don't want to," she consoled. Bridge broke down, starting to cry.
"I miss them..." he choked out, in between tears. "I miss them so much..."
"Bridgey, you could have told us. Instead of keeping quiet," comforted Z, she patted Bridge on the head. "You can tell me anything and everything. I'm your 'sister'."
"I miss them," he repeated. "She's not mean," he added after a few minutes of crying. "She didn't know. I want to find her."
"Are you sure?" asked Z. "It doesn't matter if you don't want to..."
"I'll help to find her," said Bridge, drying his tears on his sleeve. "Sorry," he added, spotting the large wet spot on the top side of Z's shirt.
Z smiled, "It's ok." All he needed was just someone to confide in. "If you have anything, just tell me. I'm here for you," she assurred.
Bridge took of his glove and concentrated, harder than before. "Where would she go? Where would she go? Where would she go?" he mumbled to himself, repeatedly. I do want to find her. I do want to find her. "I got it!" he announced, happily. "The river," he stated simply.
Z beamed at her psychic friend. "Let's get cracking."
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Someone was coming. She could hear foot steps. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? Didn't they know she wanted to be alone? Snarling, she turned around to face the interupter.
"Hello," said a familiar voice. It was her. And her friend. Z and Bridge, was it their names? "Hey. Hi. Umm..." she paused, not knowing what to say. "About just now..." She sounded apologetic, sorry, sympathetic even... Why would she?
"What do you want?" asked Syd, bitter. Anger coursed through her veins, she hated this girl more than ever. "Get lost!" she half shouted. Z stayed there, Bridge lagging behind.
"I just wanted to-" Z started to explain.
"Go away! Or else..." Syd threatened. Around her waist was a belt of different materials, something she had crafted the day she had learned complete control of her powers. She grabbed the iron bar in the belt. "FIST OF IRON!" Her fist glew an angry shade of pink, before revealing her fist of iron. "Go away..." she muttered. Then suddenly, she lunged at Z, hitting her, as hard as she could bear to, in the stomach, making her fly back a few metres.
This girl has powers like them? Like her, Bridge, Sam, Sky and Jack? Z fell heavily on the ground, groaning. She doubled up in pain, rolling up into a ball. "NNnnghhh..." She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the pain. That girl sure knew how to hit. "Z, are you ok?" asked Bridge, running over to help his 'sister'. "Are you ok?" he asked again, after receiving no reply.
All of a suden a fleet of buzzing robots appeared. "Huh?" Syd looked around. They were surrounded. And these robots did not look friendly. She threw a casual glance at Z. Had she really hit her that hard?
"Z..." Bridge shook her gently, whislt surveying the newcomers frantic. He was getting a bad vibe from them. Dark. Evil. The duplicator didn't respond, still curled up. The robots just stood there, as if waiting for something. "Open your eyes. Open your eyes," he begged, desperate for a response. Then they attacked. Yelping, Bridge stood up, falling into a defensive position.
Her fist still made of iron, Syd was able to damage a few of the robots, before over using her power too much, making her iron fist fade away. "Uh oh..." she muttered.
The three of them were over powered.
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"So do you think they found Sydney?" asked Jack. He and Sam had been walking for fifteen minutes. Sam shrugged. "Wana bet who finds her first?"
"No way..." answered Sam, waving his hands. "Bridge will find her. He can do that psychic aura tracking thing." Jack nodded.
"Good point..."
As Sam was about to bring up another topic, a bunch of weird things appeared in front of them. Shocking the hell out of them. "What's that?" asked Sam, cautious. No one else he knew could teleport. The only person he knew was well... him.
"I have no idea, but I don't think they're our new neighbours," answered Jack. The things attacked. Although Sam and Jack were using their genetic powers to defend themselves, they were defeated.
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"I wonder if..." Sky mused out loud. Deep in thought, he accidentally bumped into someone. "Sorry..." he said quickly, before carrying on with his quest to find the missing blonde. The person grabbed him suddenly, tightly. "What the-"
The person was a spandex clad humanoid. There were a group of them. "Hey let go!" shouted Sky, creating a force field blowing the robot back. "Hah..." he smirked. Then he was caught by surprise as half a dozen or more robots held both his arms back, making it impossible for him to create the force fields.
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"Yes... The plan is being brought into motion..." muttered an alien being, watching a few monitors, each showing a few of the human beings with genetic powers being captured. "Earth shall be mine!"
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Kinda weird, some parts. Please review!
Blackie Frogz
